What's Your Claim to Fame?

Well, let's see. I'm related to James Naismith, the Canadian (yay! ) who invented basketball and I think (I'll have to double check... I think it's Alexander Fleming) I'm related to one of the people who discovered the uses of penicillin.

As a child, I was in the TV audience for the launch of a dismal kid's show called "declic". I think that was the one and only episode they made!!

And I have shaken hands and spoken with Canadian hunk actor Paul Gross. (think Due South? the TV series that featured a Mountie living in Chicago)

Everyone here seems to have such interesting back grounds! I recently found out that I am very distantly related to John Kinzie (he founded Chicago). The ironic thing about it is my first visit to Chicago (my boyfriend lives there!) we ate at Harry Cary's Bar & Grill and it's on Kinzie street! I didn't even notice what street it was on until I got my pictures back from my trip and in a picture I was standing in front of the Bar & right above was the street sign! Strange, huh?
My family has also told me that I am very very distantly related to the country singer Travis Tritt.
OH..This one doesn't really apply to myself, but it does my little community. The movie "To Wong Fu, from Julie Newmar" was filmed in Nebraska (if you look closely at the cars you can see the license plates) and while Patrick Swazey was filming that movie he came down to Fairbury (my town) to go fishing. I would have paid big bucks to see him! Yummy!!
Um...I think that's all of my "claims to fame" stuff. If not, I'm sure I'll add it on here!

My family is suppossedly related to Daniel Boone on one side and Sir Walter Raleigh on the other.
I think I've only had a couple of encounters with famous people...I saw Melissa Sue Anderson from Little House on the Prarie several years ago when I was in Hawaii. When I was a child I was on a local t.v. show called T-Bar-B and I also went to the Oprah Show a few years ago.

Lisa

I'm not related to anyone famous!

I used to play with Patsy Kensit when I was a kid, as her mum and mine were friends - she is an "actress" who was in Leathel Weapon 2 and was married to Liam Gallagher, from Oasis, and also married to Jim Kerr from Simple Minds.

I used to go to college with Rufus Sewell (I went out with his best friend) - an actor, the dark haired lead role in "First Knight".

I bumped into the male cast of Emmerdale, a terrible British soap, in a pub before Xmas. All I can say is that Zac Dingle is very attractive in real life!

I used to pretend as a kid that I was related to Alexander Fleming and Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond books - as my surname is Fleming. Sad, eh?

Used to work at a recording studio. Met many wonderful people such as Donny Osmond, Anne Murray, Martin Short, Graham Greene and a bunch of other people. Met some not so nice people - Bill Shatner. At the studio one day I was asked to be the scream in an episode of "Forever Knight" - vampire TV show. My different screams were used on 4 episodes. I also clapped on someone's album, but I can't remember the artist - not famous!

I'm not related to anyone famous!

Click to expand...

Don't worry flimflam, I'm not related to anyone famous, either. One of my ancestors, however, was in an insane asylum. Mom traced part of Dad's family back to Vermont in the 1800's. During one census, the father of the family was listed as an "inmate". We always assumed he had been in jail (for embezzlement, he was a bank clerk). Recently, I found out from a long-lost cousin that there is no jail in that city, but an insane asylum.

Welp....

Besides my wife and 3 children (they ARE indeed, my biggest claim to fame).....


I've met Marlo Thomas, had lunch with George Takei (Sulu from the original ST), had a nice conversation with Jerry Van Dyke in an airport, Used to work for the guy who invented model rocketry (lee Peister) with Vern Estes, as well as the man who invented AM/FM multiplex, had a nice conversation for while with the man who invented the internet..... Other than that, I live vicariously through AirPrincess.

This is so cool! And Christy - too funny!

Let's see....

My grandfather's cousin (my great-aunt?) was Anne Morrow, Lindbergh's wife.

Gary met President Bush and Governor Pitaki in February and ate lunch with Laura Bush and Libby Pitaki.

Gary was Jerry Falwell's bodyguard on one of his many trips to Israel.

Charlton Heston and Anne Margaret both graduated from my high school.

I went to school from kindergarden through high school with Adam Baldwin (My Bodyguard and lots of bit parts, most noteably in Independence Day).

Gary went to school with the son of the Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia.

We've met lots of famous people in the world of finance. We met Warren Buffet and lots of other people that impress us, but most people have probably never heard of!

Our former boss was married to Terry O'Malley - half owner (sister of Peter O'Malley) of the Dodgers before they were sold to Murdoch (we worked for him prior to and during the sale of the Dodgers and spent a day with him reminiscing at Vero Beach - Dodger's training camp).

We're friends with a member of the Board of Ferrari and Piaget! (one person) If we ever get the money, we've been invited to his home in Switzerland, where he'll let us use his Ferrarri that ran in Le Mans!

Boy, Laurie, you and Ken brought out the big guns! Hey, about Anne Morrow Lindbergh? I think you're your own grandma!
I'm sure no one will know these opera singers, but I have sung with Beverly Sills, Anna Moffo, Jerome Hinds, Dorothy Kirsten, Mildred Miller--most of the Met stars from the 80's except Joan Sutherland and Pavarotti. We couldn't afford them. I believe Renatta Tibaldi came too, but I'm not sure. Some of the leads were stars in Europe first, came to the US, and toured the country before going to the Met. One of our guest conductors was Anton Coppola, the father of the director, Francis Ford Coppola. He was only about 5'3" tall, and a very nice man to work with. I had a wonderful time for those years. If I ever get to a scanner, I'll post some pictures of me in costume. Our makeup was reminiscent of Anna Nicole's--seriously! Can you imagine me in Anna Nicole's makeup? I was gorgeous, just like Anna! (About as gorgeous as a streetwalker!)

Jeanie, that's so cool! Of COURSE we've heard of those opera singers, and Gary's familiar with Anton Coppola.

I forgot to mention that when Gary was 10 he sang in La Boheme (on Chicago's equivalent of Broadway - he was the Page).

We used to know AC/DC and Pearl Jam.

A couple more things I forgot.

We ate dinner at a table next to Dianna Ross and Barry Gordy! We got into a great conversation, and bought them a bottle of wine. Of course Gary made Barry feel old, but we all had a good laugh about it.

And Donald Sutherland used the same Dry Cleaners we did (it was easier to bring our dry cleaning into the city near work and get it done there rather than out here). We ran into him all the time, and Gary (who can become friends with people by striking up a conversation on an elevator) and he always exchanged chit-chat. No one had ever told him that Kelley's Heroes was their favorite of his movies before!

Wait - I'm confused! How would I be my own grandma? (Re: Anne Morrow Lindbergh).

Laurie and anyone else- Have you noticed that Donald Sutherland whispers his dialogue in movies now? It doesn't seem like an impediment, but I could be wrong. It seems to be for effect. I don't care for it. If he has a throat problem, forgive me for saying anything. Does he normally speak that way, Laurie?

No - but then I haven't seen any of his recent movies, so I'm not sure what you mean. But since Gary's back problems started again, we've been using dry cleaners out here as we rarely travel into the city. Well - once every week or couple of weeks. So we haven't seen him since... May? June? Earlier this year, anyway. But he spoke in a normal voice. It was kind of gravelly - like he's getting older and had a cold (or was a long time smoker - which I don't know if he was or not). But if you mean an actual whisper, then no. He was speaking in a regular volume of voice.

Maybe it is a physical problem. Clint Eastwood talks that way too. About "I'm My Own Grandma!"..That's a very old silly song (I'm My Own Grandpa) about people trying to figure out what relation they are to their distant relatives, just a joke!

Sorry for the digression!

ok... I made a mistake. I'm NOT related to Alexander Fleming at all. But I AM related (on my mother's side) to Edward Jenner, who invented the vaccine for smallpox.

thh20 - don't worry, we won't flog you here! ...at least - I don't think we will. Will we?

...and Jeanie - woosh! That went right over my head before! Now I get it! At first, I thought I'd written something wrong and went back to read my post, and couldn't figure out where I'd gone wrong....

if you live in NYC long enough, and look at the people around you (I dont always do that) you spot quite a few well-known people.
Not counting celebrities being paid to be where they are, I've been in the same room with, passed on the street, rode in an elevator etc with
(among others, in no particular order):

Richard Nixon (well passed his presidency)
Jerry Orbach (Law & Order)
Yul Brenner (not long before he died)
Dustin Hoffman
Billy Joel
John Houseman (also not long before he died)
Rudi Giuliani
Woody Allen
William Randolph Hearst II or III (Patty's father)
Jesse Jackson
Jack Nicholson (at the Metropolitan Opera of all odd places - he
was sitting in the same section as I was, sunglasses & all)
Connie Chung
Peter Jennings
Most of CBS's 60 Minutes anchors because I worked in a building
where they had offices (they are all rather long in the tooth. Makeup does wonders.)
James Carville
Michael Moriarty


The 'six degrees of separation' theory is that if a person goes out 5 connections (friend of a friend of a friend etc) they will find a contact with virtually everyone!

I was the New Year's baby for my town, but it was a very small town - I was born on January 17!

My cousin's wife's cousin was engaged to Amy Carter (former US pres. Jimmy's daughter), but they never got married (I met her at my cousin's wedding 14 years ago...)

These next two possibly only Canadians (or northern Americans) will appreciate:

I once sat next to Al Waxman (TV's "King of Kensington") on a plane, and I met the Hanson brothers at a hockey game.

I've had my picture in the paper numerous times - once for an article promoting my personal chef business, once while protesting in university, and once totally by accident, when I was waiting for a bus across the street from a protest gathering. I've also been on the local breakfast TV show doing a food demo.

I have friends who've met Phil Collins, Def Leppard and other rock acts because they worked in the local cymbal factory where these guys would come and get custom orders, plus my brother was friends with the owner's son. Never met any of them myself, but the buzz at school the next day was always exciting... I'm really tugging threads now... I think I'm done...